As described in Japanese Patent No. 3058333, a moving image search technique that displays index information of images as a thumbnail image sequence, and jumps the current playback position to an arbitrary scene in response to a user clicking a desired thumbnail image among them using a pointing device, is available. Also, as a recent video recorder that uses a hard disk (HD) as a storage medium, a product that effectively presents a thumbnail image sequence by automatically scrolling it in synchronism with the displayed moving image is available.
FIGS. 13A and 13B are views for explaining playback of a moving image or moving picture and display of a thumbnail image sequence. A moving image playback area 2000 plays back and displays a moving image, and a thumbnail image sequence 2001 displays thumbnail images corresponding to respective scenes of the moving image in line (in FIGS. 13A and 13B, five thumbnail images are displayed). In this example, thumbnail images are displayed for respective scenes obtained by delimiting a moving image at given time intervals. In FIG. 13A, the moving image playback area 2000 displays scene 20, and the thumbnail image sequence 2001 displays thumbnail images corresponding to scenes 18 to 22. Automatically scrolling the thumbnail image sequence in synchronism with the displayed moving image means switching the display contents of the thumbnail image sequence from scenes 18 to 22 to scenes 19 to 23 when the contents on the moving image playback area 2000 have reached scene 21.
When one image of the thumbnail image sequence 2001, e.g., a thumbnail image corresponding to scene 22, is designated by mouse operation or the like, a moving image corresponding to scene 22 is played back on the moving image playback area 2000.
By manually scrolling the thumbnail image sequence 2001, a thumbnail image sequence within a desired range can be displayed, as shown in, e.g., FIG. 13B. At this time, the synchronous operation is interrupted. In this way, when the playback position jumps to a scene far from the current scene as a result of the user clicking on a given thumbnail image, the user scrolls the thumbnail image sequence in the time-axis direction, and clicks a thumbnail image of a scene that he or she wants to review.
However, the user cannot often find any scene as a jump destination, and wants to continue to watch a moving image. In such case, however, the synchronous relationship between the moving image and thumbnail image sequence has collapsed upon scrolling the thumbnail image sequence. Since the conventional apparatus does not take sufficient measure to restore synchronous display, when the user wants to revert from the state shown in FIG. 13B to the synchronous state shown in FIG. 13A (synchronization between a moving image to be played back and thumbnail image sequence), he or she must manually scroll back the thumbnail image sequence.
Likewise, after the user has scrolled the thumbnail image sequence in the time-axis direction to preview scenes ahead of the current scene of this moving image, he or she wants to restore the display state of the thumbnail image sequence in synchronism with the moving image, playback of which is underway. However, a measure to realize such operation is not available.
Furthermore, when the user wants to make a jump to a desired scene by selecting a given thumbnail image from the thumbnail image sequence, while the thumbnail image sequence is automatically scrolled in synchronism with the displayed moving image, the contents of the thumbnail image sequence have been scrolled at a delicate timing, and the user may select a thumbnail image that he or she did not intend. This is also a problem posed upon displaying a thumbnail image sequence in synchronism with the displayed moving image.